Outlander star Sophie Skelton has shared her emotional “grieving” process while filming the final season of the popular historical drama, following the release of a teaser trailer that left fans intrigued by an unidentified voice, reports the Daily Record.
Skelton, who is beloved by Outlander fans for her portrayal of Brianna MacKenzie, opened up about her experience working on the concluding series and bidding farewell to the show she’s been part of for ten years.
During an exclusive chat with Reach Screen Time, the 31 year old English actress revealed: “Caitríona [Balfe] and I talked about it lot. We both went through it in various phases of grieving.
“We came and went in very funny orders and I think we ended it on a high but I think season eight was great to film because it made us all just reflect a lot and it was beautiful.”
The actress, also known for her roles in Blackbird and Netflix’s Castlevania: Nocturne, remembered a particularly touching moment on set that left her in tears.
She explained: ” One of the scenes I was actually most upset was when they were wrapping [Lizzie Wemyss star] Caitlin [O’Ryan] because Caitlin and I are friends and I thought, ‘It’s fine, I’ll see her in real life.’ And so I didn’t really think I’d feel the way I did.
“As soon as we finished the scene and they said, ‘That’s a picture wrap for Caitlin on Outlander,’ even now I’m getting goosebumps, I just burst into tears and Caitlin and I just hugged each other and we couldn’t stop sobbing.”
Skelton went on to detail how she was hit by the enormity of it after moving back home to England and leaving behind all her Outlander colleagues in Scotland: “It was really hard state of grieving actually because I lost the country I was living in, I lost the people, family friends, the co-workers and I lost the job.”
Although Skelton is now looking towards the future, she admitted that it was a “really strange grieving process”.
Since wrapping up on Outlander last year, Skelton has kept herself occupied with various other projects, including the Raindance-winning psychological thriller Row.
The actress portrays a “hippie dippy” sailor on a transatlantic rowing challenge to smash the world record, only for the journey to conclude in disaster with one sole survivor attempting to reconstruct events leading to her crew mates’ deaths.
Row also features Nine Perfect Strangers actress Bella Dayne and Akshay Khanna from Murderbot.
Skelton and the remainder of the cast were required to master rowing techniques and spent the entire filming period on a cramped vessel in frequently turbulent waters with winds exceeding 70mph, making the role vastly different from Brianna and Outlander.
She is now concentrating on other ventures after recently wrapping work on the I Can Only Imagine sequel alongside Dennis Quaid and Milo Milo Ventimiglia.